Bakura was sprawled on the couch, his feet in Malik's lap, Malik idly rubbing Bakura's soles as the two mostly ignored the TV droning in the background.
"So, I was thinking," said Malik, "we don't really celebrate any holidays, or birthdays."
"Yeah?" Bakura said as he turned his head to look over his shoulder at Malik, prompting him to go on.
It was true that they didn't celebrate anything. Of course, Malik didn't consider his birthday something to be celebrated. It was the day his mother died birthing him, the day of his initiation, the day his terrible alternate personality was created, and the day he—or a part of him—had killed his father. So Malik's birthday never failed to be distressing for him. They never really talked about the way that day transpired every year, but they both knew that on his birthday Malik would be unlikely to get out of bed, and that Bakura would, without comment, spend the day just silently being with Malik, sometimes lying next to him, sometimes holding him, and once or twice bringing him whatever food he felt he could keep down. It was the only day of the year Bakura ever consented to cook anything.
As for Bakura, he had no idea when his own birthday even was. Malik had asked about it once, and Bakura had said that even if his memories of his life in Egypt hadn't been spotty, he didn't think the exact date of one's birth was really something his village had kept track of.
They didn't celebrate Christmas, either. Bakura thought it would be stupid to recognize the holiday of a religion they not only didn't follow, but in fact knew to be false, as both of them were well aware of the existence of the Egyptian gods. Granted, Christmas was really treated as more of a secular holiday in Japan, where they rented their apartment, but Bakura still said he thought it would be pointless to observe it. Besides, Christmas was only a couple days after Malik's birthday, and Malik didn't exactly feel up to celebrating so soon after the awful day.
They could have celebrated Valentine's Day or White Day, but Malik knew Bakura would reject doing so as being far too sentimental and sappy, and Malik didn't entirely disagree. Besides, they hadn't technically even admitted they were actually in a relationship. They'd been living together for a few years now, ever since about six months after the Ceremonial Duel, when Malik and Ryou had used the reappearance of the Ring as an opportunity to craft a spell to bring Bakura back, having needed something he was connected to in life in order to pull him from the Shadows. Upon Bakura's return he and Malik had immediately picked up where they'd left off in Battle City, and it had been obvious since then that neither had eyes for anyone else. But they had never made things official, and if asked, Bakura would say they were just fuck buddies, and Malik never tried to contradict him.
But leaving their relationship status ambiguous and unspoken worked well for both of them. Malik had spent so much of his life under strict control, with so many heavy expectations placed on him, so many stifling edicts about what he was and wasn't allowed to do, his entire life planned out and decided before he was even born, that as a result he now hated any kind of structure or rules. He'd really never in his life had any desire to have sex with anyone besides Bakura, but he didn't want some kind of official rule saying he couldn't. In a relationship, there were certain things you were supposed to do, and things you weren't supposed to do, and the very idea of that made Malik feel trapped and suffocated, like he was back in a dark, claustrophobic tunnel under the ground. He hated feeling controlled. He was with Bakura because he wanted to be—it didn't need to be labeled as some specific cultural institution.
As for Bakura, he'd lost everyone he loved, everyone he even knew, at such a young age, and obviously that was something that would never stop affecting him. So Malik knew, without Bakura having to say it, that now the idea of actually admitting he cared for and needed someone was terrifying to him. Malik thought that, in a way, Bakura felt that if he admitted that he and Malik were together— more than that, that Malik was his family—that it would cause Malik to be taken away from him somehow. And besides, Bakura had spent so much of his life completely alone that Malik figured he really had no idea how to express his emotions verbally; it wasn't something he'd ever learned. But Bakura didn't need to say it; Malik knew. His actions showed how he really felt, even if his words denied it.
So Bakura kept up the charade of pretending they weren't together, and always insisted that he and Malik were just roommates who fucked, and Malik happened to prefer it that way.
Sometimes, Malik thought it was kind of amazing that their respective traumas managed to mesh so well together, in such a way that it somehow created something good from such terrible things.
Regardless, that meant they couldn't exactly celebrate anniversaries, either, considering neither would actually admit that they were in a relationship.
There were various Japanese holidays, but they mostly ignored them, neither feeling particularly culturally connected to the country. They'd mostly moved there to get away from Egypt, away from the bad memories and the stifling society, and Japan had seemed as good a choice as any. They were both familiar with the place, and it was also the home of Ryou—Malik's only real friend, and the only person Bakura could really tolerate besides Malik. Bakura put up with Malik's siblings, and probably had some strange form of deeply buried affection for them, but Ryou was the only other person he really liked being around, even if he wouldn't admit that he did.
"So I thought," Malik continued, "maybe we could create a holiday to celebrate. We could have a day, and then we could get each other presents."
"I get you presents," Bakura said, giving a little sigh and spreading his toes as Malik pressed his thumb into the arch of Bakura's foot.
"Yeah, I know," Malik said. Bakura did get presents for him—sometimes, when he was out lifting stuff, he'd see something Malik would like, a game or a piece of jewelry or some other trinket, and he'd steal it for him. "But we could have, like, an actual day for presents."
Bakura yawned and pillowed his head on his crossed arms. "Seems pointless."
Malik lightly smacked the ball of his foot with his palm. "Shut up and listen, you'll like this."
Bakura turned and raised his eyebrows in question, though he gave Malik a scowl as well.
"So the rule is," Malik said, "they have to be sexy presents."
Bakura yawned again, lying his head back down. "Fine, fine, you've convinced me." As much fun as it was sometimes to argue with Malik and get him riled up, he was too relaxed and sleepy at the moment to be in the mood for a fight, and besides, he wasn't inclined to turn down anything that would result in sex. "Did you have something particular in mind?"
"Not yet, I'll have to think of something good. And you will too. But don't tell me— it's supposed to be a surprise."
"Alright. So what day is this...sex holiday supposed to be, then?"
"Well we need to think of something, and have time for stuff to arrive if we order something...so maybe three weeks from today?" Exactly three weeks from today was, actually, the anniversary of the day they'd met, but Malik wasn't sure if Bakura knew that or not.
If he did, Bakura gave no indication. He only nodded a little, his eyes closed. Malik could see he was really falling asleep now, so he scooped him up and carried him to their bed.